1. Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate to an induction heating cooker having an inverter to supply a high-frequency voltage to a heating coil to heat a container.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an induction heating cooker enables high-frequency current to flow through a heating coil to generate a strong high-frequency magnetic field in the heating coil and generates eddy current in a container magnetically coupled to the heating coil through the high-frequency magnetic field such that the container is heated by Joule's heat to cook food.
In the induction heating cooker, an inverter enables the high-frequency current to flow through the heating coil. The inverter generally drives a switching element including an Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) to apply a high-frequency voltage to the heating coil, thereby generating the high-frequency magnetic field in the heating coil.
In such an induction heating cooker, the heating coil is fixed to the inside of a main body to provide a heating source. In addition, a cooking plate on which a container is placed is provided on an upper side of the main body. On this cooking plate, a mark is formed at a position corresponding to the heating coil to enable a user to accurately position a container.
However, such a method is inconvenient because the user must accurately position the container at a specific position on the cooking plate.
Accordingly, a recent induction heating cooker has a function for sensing a position where a container is positioned and heating the container, without the need to position the container at a specific position. In this case, in the induction heating cooker, a large number of heating coils is arranged throughout the heating cooker.
In general, since the induction heating cooker drives one heating coil using one inverter, if the number of heating coils is increased, the number of inverters is also increased.
However, if the number of inverters is increased, manufacturing costs are increased. In addition, since the thickness of the cooker is increased due to space limitations, it is difficult to reduce the overall size of the cooker.